


It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

by LauramourFromOz



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: 2016 Advent Calandar, Advent Calendar, Multi, UNIT, UNIT Family, christmas truce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-03 00:25:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 16,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8689429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauramourFromOz/pseuds/LauramourFromOz
Summary: An Advent Calandar made up of semi conected one shots.





	1. A Trip To Wagga Wagga

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: Favorite Female Companion (Tegan), Favorite Family Member (Kate)
> 
> Tegan lives in Wagga Wagga because it seems as good a place as any and my favorite uncle (on whom Richard Eastick is based) is moving away from there and I am sad because I like Wagga Wagga.

For Tegan Jovanka it had been a lifetime since she left the TARDIS. It was early December and she was sat alone in her little house. She had long since left Brisbane for greener pastures in Wagga Wagga. Thanks to one Sarah Jane Smith she had been roped into consulting for UNIT periodically. She loved the woman but would have preferred to be left off the UNIT ex-companions list. This was one such situation. There was a persistent pounding on her front door. Not violent but persistent. It was Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, although she generally went by Kate Stewart anyone who had ever known the Brigadier refused to acknowledge this preference. There had been a meeting.

“Kate.” Tegan said when she opened the door.

“I need your help.”

‘Hello Tegan, How’s it going? I hope I’m not disturbing you. Hi Kate. No, I wasn’t doing anything. How are the kids?”

“Sorry, Hi Tegan, Kids are good, Gordon got engaged last week. Now, I really, really need your help.”

“Come in. Why does nobody ever just drop in anymore?”

“It’s nearly seventeen thousand kilometers Tegan. What did you think I came here for, tea and cake?”

“Fair cop, what do you need?”

“Tell me about The Terileptils.”

“What do you want to know? Hold on, how do you know about them?”

“UNIT took an account from you about your time with The Doctor after you left him the second time.”

“Did you? I have no recollection of that.”

“No, we wiped your memory afterwards. It’s a security measure, can’t have the Doctor finding out we’re keeping tabs.” 

“Fair enough.”

“You encountered them twice?”

“Yes, the first resulted in the Great Fire of London. The second wreaked havoc on a small village and a church collapsed but that was chiefly some sort of time disturbance from a stray thing.”

“You didn’t mention the fire of London last time.”

“Didn’t I?”

“Osgood owes me fifty quid.”

“From what I gather The Terileptils are quite reasonable. War is one of their favorite pastimes but they are equally fond of art and beauty. The first lot we went up against were criminals who wanted to take the world for themselves. They re-engineered the plague to do it. What’s this about?”

“Someone thought it would be a good idea to let a team of Archaeologists excavate the site where the church used to be.”

“Who’s heading up the team? Because I have an Archaeologist friend. The advantage to using her is she knows about The Doctor.”

“Well, that’s three on the team.”

“What?”

“Professor River Song, Doctor Bernice Summerfield and this friend of yours.”

“Doctor Erin Spencer. Jayne Eastick can also help, she’s an amateur but she excels in the field. That’s how she and Erin met, Jayne was Erin’s favorite student while she was at University.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of this chapter is coming on the 14th but tomorrow we have some Two/Jamie love.


	2. Bagpipe Christmas Carols

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: Favorite Male Companion (Jamie), Christmas Carols

The Doctor had been looking for Jamie for hours. Hours. He was having precious little luck. You would think finding the source of constant bagpipe music would be relatively easy. Not that he minded hearing Jamie play. Jamie was a gifted piper and The Doctor had to confess a particular fondness for the instrument. The TARDIS seemed to agree because the sound was almost omniscient making it near impossible to trace. They were in the vortex, it was just the two of them for a time and by Jamie’s reckoning it was Christmas. The fact that they were effectively outside time seemed not to faze him in the slightest and so for the last several hours the dimensionally transcendental depths of The TARDIS, from the Control room to the cloister room, from the library to the swimming pool, had been filled with Christmas carols. From the future, from the past. 

By the time The Doctor did find Jamie, in a room he’d half forgotten about, Jamie was almost ready to down the pipes. The Doctor leaned, unnoticed against the wall appreciating the sight before him until Jamie played through the final notes of Auld Lang Syne.

“Did you want something Doctor?”

“No Jamie, no. I was just listening.”

“Oh, aye. What do ye think?”

The doctor ran his hand down Jamie’s forearm and took his hand “Beautiful, just beautiful. The carols were nice too.”

Jamie blushed and looped his arms around The Doctor’s neck, kissing him briefly on the lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we have some Yates/Benton love (I love that pairing, I really do) at the UNIT Christmas party.


	3. UNIT Christmas Party (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: OTP (Benton/Yates), Mistletoe
> 
> I'm not sure exactly when this takes place. it's sometime in the seventies before Invasion of The Dinosours (obviously). about nowish in the early seventies.

The annual UNIT Christmas party was held at HQ for several reasons. Not the least of them was so that everyone could be there in some capacity. This had been one of Sergeant Richard Eastick’s brilliant ideas. Richard was a fairly tall Australian who came in just under Benton in the chain of command. He was steadfast, loyal, good humoured, clever, hardworking, handy in a fight, everything an ANZAC was supposed to be. He was the kind of soldier, much like Benton, who was worth about a dozen ordinary men. He had been, to be sure, an adjustment, for UNIT in general. He wasn’t one to excessively stand on ceremony and could generally be relied upon to tell even The Brigadier when he was being stupid. The Brigadier had mixed, but mostly positive, feelings about this.

The mistletoe, to everyone’s surprise, was another of Richard’s ideas. His reasoning never became entirely clear, best guess was that it was for the benefit of Benton and Yates. Jo, Corporal Bell and Lance Corporal Caroline Saunders were not overly amused, particularly Saunders who, while relatively new, had found herself caught under the wretched stuff With the Brigadier. He, in an attempt to make her more comfortable made very little of it and kissed her cheek. This didn’t help the private crush she was nursing but she appreciated the effort.

Richard too had been caught with The Brigadier and he had not been shy. As with many things involving Richard The Brigadier had mixed feelings about this.

The party was in full swing when Yates and Benton got caught under it a hush rippled across the room and both reddened under the scrutiny. They looked at each other. One of those lovers looks, familiar and intimate. The kiss, whilst decidedly G-rated was a ripper. It lasted probably twenty seconds and they both came away smiling. Richard Wolf whistled and Yates buried his face in Benton’s silently laughing neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we continue the UNIT Christmas party saga and there is some Doctor/Master love.


	4. UNIT Christmas Party (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Favorite Villain (The Master).
> 
> This is intended as slash but can be read as gen.

The Doctor’s relationship with The Master was, well, complex. Some combination of Best Friend, Lover and Nemesis seemed to broadly cover it. He managed to sneak in to UNIT’s Christmas party. He found The Doctor in his laboratory early in the early evening. He hopped up on the bench.

“Theta.” He said conversationally.

“Master. “

“Hiya Kosh, nice to see you. What have I done to deserve the pleasure of your company?

“Here to cause trouble no doubt?”

“My dear Doctor, If I were here to cause trouble, I’d have done a much less thorough job of sneaking in. No, I came to see you. I thought you could take me to this Christmas party and we could start our Christmas armistice a little early.”

“Did you indeed.”

“Now Doctor, why is that so difficult to believe?”

“History perhaps?”

“When have I ever greeted you as Theta and then caused trouble. I’ve always honored our system. You wound me Doctor.”

“You’ll live.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with that Australian.”

“So Kosh. Why the sudden charitable gesture?”

“Do I have to have a reason?”

“Yes.”

“Fine, if you must know, I miss you.”

“And?”

“And I can’t tell you the rest, it’s in your future.”

“Did you kill me?”

“Of course not.”

“What is it then?”

“If I were to tell you that it would violate the most fundamental laws of time.”

“Since when do you care about the laws of time?”

“I am a Time Lord, it is my duty to care about them at least a bit.”

“Exactly. You and I both know the dire consequences only apply in the most extreme circumstances.”

“My dear Doctor, you must believe me, this qualifies. I beg of you, stop asking me to tell you because I might and I can’t.”

“Very well then.”

“Well, shall we go?”

“Go where?”

“To the Christmas party.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we continue directly from this with more Doctor/Mater love and an appearance from Richard and his cool new toy (shamelessly stolen from Stargate).


	5. UNIT Christmas Party (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the UNIT Christmas party arc (I think, for now anyway).

Richard had gone looking for The Doctor. The Christmas party was about to get underway and he thought it best to remind him. When he arrived at The Doctor’s laboratory he found him arm in arm with The Master. He drew his revolver. It was not ADF issue, nor even was it regular UNIT issue. It was a prototype The Doctor had been working on with the boffins. It was nice. Outwardly it looked enough like the standard issue Webley to pass unnoticed. Inwardly though it was something quite special. It was a stun gun.

“Richard, it’s alright. He’s not here to cause trouble.” The Doctor said reassuringly.

“You sure Doc?”

“Quite sure.”

Richard holstered his weapon.

“You coming to the party?” He said.

“Yes.”

“Right. I’ll leave you to it. Watch out for the mistletoe in the hall. I think somebody’s trying to corner Jo.” Richard said leaving.

“Oh, Sergeant. I’ve set up a kind of scavenger hunt, do keep an eye out.”

Richard stopped in his tracks.

“What have you done?” The Doctor said.

“It’s all in fun my dear.”

“Will it explode in anyone’s face or, maim, injure or kill anyone.”

“It’s quite safe I assure you.”

“Will it maim, injure or kill anyone.”

“No Doctor. Christmas armistice, remember.”

“Any exploding traps?”

“Only tiny ones. They’re quite safe I assure you, they’ll only trigger from a safe distance.”

“They’d better.”

“Shall I tell The Brig?” Richard said.

“I think you’d better.”

Richard left. And a short while later the two Time Lords followed. The Master put a hand out to stop the Doctor in the corridor.

“Your Australian was wrong about one thing.”

“Oh, what was that?”

“This mistletoe.” He said looking up at a small sprig. “It wasn’t put here for Miss Grant.”

“You old romantic.” The Doctor said kissing him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we delve into a particular Christmas morning from Kate's childhood.


	6. Christmas With The Lethbridge-Stewarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: Father and Daughter (Kate and The Brig), Christmas Morning
> 
> I’ll write the incident in this properly one day.

Among Kate Stewart’s many oddities was her genuine enjoyment of reading old UNIT reports. It was a quiet night in early December and Kate was in her office. There was little more than a skeleton staff and Kate was reading a rather enlightening report. It had been written by her father a few days later but the events had taken place late on Christmas Eve. The Doctor hadn’t been around and there had been a foothold situation. A bad one. It had been resolved in the end (the report was sketchy on exactly how the resolution had come about). Both Yates and Benton had been nearly killed and it had lasted well into Christmas morning. Kate’s father had not come away unscathed either. According to Harry Sullivan’s report he had suffered several cracked and broken ribs, extensive bruising and two almost dislocated shoulders.

Thinking back Kate couldn’t remember her father looking as awful as he must have felt. She never could. She did remember leaping into his arms almost as soon as he came through the door. She did remember dragging him by the arm to show off the presents she was halfway through opening.  She did remember the massive argument between her parents witch she had pretended not to hear.

She remembered Sergeant Eastick, the nice Australian who occasionally visited, turning up at the door in uniform.  She remembered his brown slouch hat. She gathered from the timing and both his report and Harry’s that the visit was to let him know that Yates and Benton were going to be, after a couple of days in the infirmary and a week of R and R, absolutely fine.

Kate did remember her father becoming visibly relaxed after Richard’s brief visit.

According to the reports Richard, being the least injured of the command quartet, was still on duty. Kate was still unsure about the exact dynamic between her father, Yates, Benton and Richard. Apart from Harry Sullivan, who was a Navy Lieutenant at the time, the four of them were the highest ranking members of UNIT, based out of HQ anyway. From what she gathered after speaking to the UNIT old guard the four of them had a somewhat less than conventional way of deciding which of them would be on duty for Christmas, Bank Holidays and Easters. She had never managed to coax the exact details of this process out of any of them. She imagined she never would. In fact, the only one who had ever managed to acquire the finer details was Jayne Eastick, Richard’s favourite grandchild. Kate, who was well acquainted with Jayne, had never thought to ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we delve into the greatest bromance in Doctor Who, Three and The Brig.


	7. Go Fish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: BroTP (Three+Brig), Cards
> 
> This turned out a bit darker than I intended.

 It was a rare quiet week at UNIT which is what led to Brigadier General Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and The Doctor playing go fish in the Doctor’s lab.

“Got any fours Doctor?”

“Go fish. Any threes?  How’s Kate?”

“She’s fine, go fish. Kings?”

“Damn. Queens?”

“There you go. The Master seems curiously inactive at the moment. Sevens?”

“Go fish. I told you he was extending our little Christmas armistice. Got any aces?”

“Go fish. How can you be sure he isn’t using this little truce of yours to hatch some major offensive? Twos?”

“Because he called me Theta. Fours?”

“What exactly does that prove? Any Jacks?”

“Go fish. He’s never dishonoured our system before. Fives?”

“Go fish. That you know of. Sixes?”

“No, I would know. Fives?”

“I know your relationship could keep an army of psychologists busy for about a century but how can you be sure? You can’t exactly take him at his word. Eights?”

“Go fish. But I can, it’s a Time Lord thing. Jacks?”

“He isn’t exactly known for being a model Time Lord. Got a five?”

“He isn’t, not generally, but he is a good husband. Sixes?”

“Husband? What are you on about now Doctor?”

“We were married on Galefrey, for nearly three hundred years before we left, still are technically. Got any sixes?”

“Yes, sorry. You and The Master have been married for, what? Four hundred years? Nines?”

“Go fish. Would be more like five hundred years now, for me at least. It’s hard to keep track when you both travel separately in time. Tens?

“Go fish. You’ve been married to your arch enemy for five hundred years? Fives?”

“Best enemy, not arch enemy. Nines?”

“What happened? Kings?”

“Go fish. We had a daughter and she was beautiful, perfect, absolutely brilliant. We were so happy. But she couldn’t regenerate. She only had a human lifespan. We watched our own daughter die of old age. The Master couldn’t handle it, neither of us could. I took our granddaughter and ran in one direction and he ran in the other. Jacks?”

“Go fish. Doctor, I had no Idea. Fours?”

They continued like this until the end of the game.

“Another round?” Said The Doctor.”

“We may as well.” The Brigadier replied.

Just then Richard came in. he had been looking for The Brigadier for some time.

“There you are Brigadier,” he said, “I wondered where you’d got to.”

“Problem Sergeant?”

“No, not at all. Jo’s knitting. Benton and Yates are conspicuously absent. About half the men have a bridge circle going in the mess. Most of the other half aren’t playing poker in the barracks. And there’s a group plotting something in a corner somewhere.”

“I didn’t know Jo could knit.” The Doctor said.

“She can’t.”

“At least tell me they’re not gambling with money.”

“It’s primarily duty rosters. I’ll sort it when they’re done.”

“Thank you Sergeant. Join us?”

“What are you playing?”

“Go fish, unless you have another suggestion.”

“Bulldust?”

“What?”

“It’s also called cheat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we jump forward a couple of decades and hang out with Jack and Ianto.


	8. Torchwood Waltz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: Spin-Off OTP (Jack/Ianto), Waltz.

The Torchwood Hub was empty and quiet. Jack was alone apart from the Pterodactyl and the cryogenically frozen people. Jack liked it like this. It was peaceful. It was fairly late on a mid-December night and the streets above were, due to a combination of the hour and the cold, almost totally deserted.

Jack was so deep in thought, tilted back on his office chair, when Ianto arrived he hadn’t heard the main entrance open or close. Considering the fact said entrance being similar to that of a bank vault, this was quite a feat. He, in fact, didn’t notice Ianto’s presence until the other man came to embrace him from behind. Jack tilted his head back to rest on the other man’s chest and brought his right arm up to stroke the nape of his neck affectionately.

“Hi.” Jack said affectionately.

“Hi.” Ianto replied.

“What are you doing back?”

“I got lonely.” Ianto said, coming around to sit on Jack’s desk.

“Oh, you did, did you?”

“You’re not happy to see me? I can leave.”

“I can’t think of a single context, that wouldn’t result in your death, where I wouldn’t be happy to see you.”

“You od romantic you.”

“Very old.”

“Jack.”

“Ianto.”

Jack expertly undid Ianto’s slate grey tie laying it gently on the desk and opening first two buttons of his crimson shirt kissing the point where his collarbones met.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?”

“I’m nothing special.”

‘I mean it. I’ve lived hundreds of lives, and I’ll live hundreds more. Nobody has ever been as beautiful to me as you are and nobody ever will be.”

“I bet you say that to everyone.”

“No, actually I don’t.”

Jack crossed to the old gramophone witch sat unassumingly in one corner of the office. Ianto was fairly sure he was the only one other than Jack who was aware of its presence. Jack put on an old record. It was distinctly festive with jazz undertones but Ianto had never heard it before. It began with a waltz.

“Dance with me.” Jack said extending a hand. Ianto took it and they began to move with the music. Slow and close.

When the eerily familiar vocals came in Ianto tilted his head to look at Jack.

“Is this you?”

“Yes. I made it with some friends while I was in Melbourne between the World Wars.”

“I didn’t know you’d ever been to Australia.’

“I’ve spent quite a lot of time there actually, especially in those days.”

“How did the record come about?”

“I met Jack Robinson and Kate Southon, the one singing with me, at the battle of Fromelles. And wasn’t that the worst blood bath I’ve ever seen. People were dropping like flies. Most of them Australians. That idea they have about being cannon fodder is well justified I tell you poorly dressed the ANZACs but every one of them good men, worth a dozen from anywhere else and that doesn’t include the extraordinary ones. I’d read about The ANZACs of course but being there and seeing it was something else. I happened to run into Jack in London in twenty-nine or thirty. He’d followed a lady detective, Phryne Fischer halfway around the world. It was Phryne who commissioned the record. Ridiculously affluent she was, dirt poor growing up though. I ended up following them back, I was due a change of scenery. A bit before Christmas Phryne had the idea for the record. There weren’t very many copies made, one for everyone on it and about a hundred for a hospital fundraiser.”

“How many of you were on it?

“Let’s see. Me, of course. Jack, Phryne, Kate. That’s four, then there was Mac. Doctor Elisabeth MacMillan, a formidable woman, totally brilliant. Then Dot and Hugh Collins, Jack’s Constable and his wife. And then Jane Ross, Phryne’s ward and Charlie Beaumont, Mac’s niece. So nine of us, plus a twelve piece band who were all somehow connected with Phryne, I think they were the house band at some jazz club she liked. No they weren’t, they were the house band at Florentino witch was the centre of Melbourne’s gay scene at the time.”

“There was a gay scene in nineteen thirties Melbourne?”

“There’s always a gay scene Ianto. You just have to find it.”

“Good to know.”

“What, in case you ever find yourself time travelling without me?”

Ianto huffed out a laugh and they danced out the waltz in affectionate silence. The music changed to a rendition, in parts, of Twelve Days of Christmas. Jack identified each vocalist. The Partridge in a pair tree was Charlie. Two turtle doves was Jane. Three French hen was Dot. Hugh had four calling birds. The other Jack had five gold rings. Six geese laying was Phryne. Jack had Seven swans swimming. Kate had eight maids milking. Mac had nine ladies dancing. The Jacks and Hugh had ten lords leaping. Charlie and Jane had ten drummers drumming and Mac and Kate had twelve pipers piping. The next song was a beautiful duet between Kate and Mac of Auld Lang Syne.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow, Five is baffled by mysterious gifts.


	9. Five Gold Rings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: Random Doctor (Five), The Twelve Days Of Christmas.

The Doctor was confused every regeneration, without fail a … gift … appeared somewhere in The TARDIS. The last time it had been four blackbirds. They seemed to have somewhat augmented lifespans because The Doctor could still hear them in the cloister room sometimes. The time before that it had been three French hens. They too seemed to possess atypical longevity. The time before that a pair of long lived turtledoves. The first had been a partridge perched in a pear tree. The pear tree was growing nicely in the gardens. The partridge had the unfortunate luck of being caught (and eaten) by a hungry Jamie some years later. This time it was a small box containing five simple gold rings with a note, written in Circular Galefreyan

‘I thought you could use these biodampners. P.S: like you r new face.’

The Doctor looked at the note as if it had done him some grave injustice. While he was doing this Tegan found him.

“Your face will get stuck that way if you’re not careful Doc. What have you got there?”

“They’re biodampners.”

“What do they do, dampen biorythyms?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. Well done Tegan.”

“Nyssa’s rubbing off on me.”

“What the two of you do in your own time is none of my concern.”

”Doc!”

“Come now Tegan.”

“Well, why are you looking at them like they just slapped your grandmother?”

“I keep getting these gifts. Mostly birds. Every time I regenerate. I can’t for the lives of me work out who keeps leaving them.”

“What kind of birds?”

“Those blackbirds in the cloister room were the last ones. Before that was three of the French hens in the chicken coup.”

“We have a chicken coup in this thing?”

“Where did you think we got our fresh eggs from?”

“Point. What else?”

“A pair of turtledoves the time before that. Time before that it was that big old pear tree. It did have a partridge in it when I got it but Jamie caught and ate it.”

“Doctor,” Tegan said, “You’re an idiot.”

“No I’m not. I’ll have you know that-“

“Someone’s sending you The Twelve Days of Christmas. Who it is I couldn’t tell you but: five gold rings, four colly (meaning black) birds, three French hens, two turtledoves and a partridge in a pair tree. As to who it is sending them, I haven’t the foggiest.”

“I’m impressed.”

“I do know stuff Doctor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes that is the only Nyssa/Tegan reference at this point.
> 
> Tomorrow begins a trilogy that I think is rather special, there's pomp, there's circumstance and there's even a proposal of marriage.


	10. Silver Wedding Bells (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today was originally going to be something different (an eighth Doctor story) but I had this Idea and decided to put it here instead. Because part 2 fits with the prompt for the next chapter. This one isn’t particularly festive, being set in January but tomorrows follow-up is set at Christmas.
> 
> I should point out that Invasion Of The Dinosaurs didn’t happen in quite the same way in this universe. It was significantly less of an adventure as they didn’t have anyone in UNIT. The Green Death happens in the same way but John is there to ground Mike afterwards.
> 
> John Levine loved his stripes and was apparently quite disappointed when Benton was promoted to RSM. So I assume Benton, while he appreciated the pay rise that came with his promotion, always missed his stripes.

It was late January of 2013 and a week ago Marriage Equality had come to Great Britain. Mike Yates and John Benton were no longer young men. Their lives had been firmly entwined in both work and life longer than they had ever been separate. They didn’t need a piece of paper to validate their relationship more accurately they didn’t need another piece of paper to validate their relationship. They had reams of paper. The deed to the house in both their names, seemingly endless paperwork naming the other as next of kin, medical proxy, power of attorney and everything else under the sun that would be covered by a certificate of marriage. This had all been in place since their UNIT days. Joint bank accounts. Yes, they had a great deal of paper to  justify and prove their commitment to a degree sufficient that, should either of Mike’s two remaining brothers or their families were to decide to contest the will, there would be sufficient grounds for a ruling in John’s favour. Mike had no such concerns when it came to John’s wonderful sister and her family. They had even worn rings, just simple gold bands, since their UNIT days. They didn’t need another piece of paper… and yet.

John had gone out. He had been vague about exactly where or why.

“To the shops, I’ll pick up something for tea. Be back in a couple of hours.” He had said in response to Mike’s enquiry as he left the house.

There was… something… amiss about this but Mike used the unexpected opportunity to prepare something he had been planning off and on for a long time.

Two hours later found Mike in the sitting room in his, miraculously still reasonably well fitting, Army Uniform. He had in fact retired from the Army as a Major but he was wearing his old Captain’s insignia. While he waited for John to come home he fidgeted nervously with his hat. When John arrived home he fell into a perfect parade rest.

“Mike? You home?” John called depositing the promised dinner in the kitchen.

“In here.” Mike called back.

John was a little confused when he came in to find Mike in his long disused uniform.

“Mike?”

“Come over here.”

Benton crossed the room, gave a salute witch Mike returned, then kissed him.

“What are you up to?”

“This is what I was wearing the first time we met. We were mid crisis and the introduction was somewhat hurried and, for us, it was oddly perfect. I thought you were the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. This is also what I was wearing when I realised I’d fallen in love with you.”

“Give me five minutes.”

“John.”

“Please, five minutes, there’s something I need to do. You’ll like it, I promise.”

“Alright.”

Mike had half known John was going to do this and he’d prepared accordingly. John disappeared into the bedroom where his own uniform was laid out on the bed, cleaned and pressed. John smiled when he saw it. The uniform jacket Mike had put out was an old one, from before his promotion to RSM and was adorned accordingly with his beloved stripes. John changed quicker than he had had cause to in a long time and pocketed the ring, the real reason for the day’s outing, he had collected that afternoon.

Mike smiled fondly at John when he arrived, still cutting quite a figure in his old uniform.

“Ready?”

John nodded kissing Mike’s cheek.

“This is what I was wearing the first time we met. We were mid crisis and the introduction was somewhat hurried and, for us, it was oddly perfect. I thought you were the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. This is also what I was wearing when I realised I’d fallen in love with you. All our milestones seem to have conveniently happened in these uniforms. We’ve lived and died in these uniforms. Seen the world in these uniforms, and saved it. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that you become more beautiful to me with every passing day, week, month, year decade. It has been my honour to share a life with you for all these years. I never dreamed I could be so lucky to grow old with the one perfect human in the universe. But you know all this, I’ve told you fifty thousand times.”

Mike paused and got down on one knee and taking a ring from his pocket. It was a fairly simple gold band with three diamond shapes etched in the outside to resemble captain’s insignia.

John Benton,” Mike continued,” I know it isn’t going to change anything but I want to be your husband. I want to stand up in a church in front of our friends and family. I want to save a seat for The Brigadier and Richard and Sarah-Jane. I want to tell you that you are the most wonderful man in this world or any other and that I could never leave you. So I wanted to ask you if you would finally make an honest man out of m and do me the honour of becoming my husband.”

John smiled, silent for a minute, helping Mike to his feet. He took the ring from his own pocket. It too was a simple gold band with sergeant’s stripes etched into it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow this continues with a conglomerate of special wedding guests.


	11. Silver Wedding Bells (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: Random Doctor (Twelve), Silver Bells.
> 
> For The doctor and co this takes place just after a story I haven’t finished yet. He is travelling with Jayne Eastick. They go on an adventure with Tegan Jovanka and Jayne’s partner Erin who is Benton’s niece.

December the twenty-first 2013 was the day. It seemed odd to be getting married after so many years. Aside from a passing comment from The Doctor they had never really considered the possibility, not until comparatively recently.

They had intended to keep with tradition and not see each other before the ceremony. They really had. But they’d barely slept apart for forty years. John hadn’t even made it to midnight in the spare room before climbing into bed beside Mike.

Everything was set. They’d settled on a Christmas wedding because… well, it was one of the easier times for The Doctor to find. Apparently.

They had forgone the Best Man thing. It didn’t feel right to not use Richard and The Brigadier. The only other real contender was The Doctor and they weren’t entirely certain he would make it. Besides there was no fourth option. They had joked briefly about asking The Master and then, not so jokingly, considered it but he was only slightly more likely to find them in time than The Doctor himself.

As planned, they got ready together. They had briefly toyed with the idea of being married in uniform, it almost seemed fitting, but they ultimately decided against it. They had decided against buying new rings and had decided instead to use the same ones they had been wearing for almost forty years. It didn’t seem right somehow to replace them.

They arrived at the church early. It was mid-sized. Old, nice and fairly modest. The first to arrive was, happily and fittingly The TARDIS. It carried The Doctor, who they only recognised by process of elimination, dress sense and general demeanour. He was followed by a young woman who bore an uncanny and striking resemblance to Richard Eastick, They hadn’t seen her since she was a teenager but they were both fairly sure it was Jayne Eastick, Richard’s granddaughter. She was followed out by her partner and John’s niece Dr Erin Spencer, Archaeologist. She was somewhat delicate of feature but not character.  Following her were The Brigadier, Richard and Sarah-Jane Smith. This was quite a surprising development as they had all been dead for over two years by that point. The other surprising face was Jamie McCrimmon, the kilted young Jacobite was not significantly older than when he was, in an act of immense cruelty on the part of The Time Lords, returned to his own time with all memory of The Doctor erased. The TARDIS herself was, quite fittingly, situated to one side of the entrance to the church. The group approached where John and Mike were standing just outside the doors of the church.

“We aren’t late are we?” The Doctor said in what was a rather grand Glaswegian accent.

“No, you’re right on time.” Had been Mike’s reply.

“Um Doc,” John said indicating Richard, The Brigadier and Sarah-Jane, “Isn’t this violating the laws of time or something?”

“Why yes, very astute Sergeant Benton, it does. My dear Doctor, What will our esteemed High Council say?” It was a familiar voice, one that Benton and Yates had not heard in decades. The Master.

The Brigadier, Richard, Mike and John were all instantly on alert. A reflex reaction to The Master after so many years. The Doctor however smiled fondly as The Master came to join them.

“Of all your faces Kosh, I think this is my favourite. I am, however happily free of the scrutiny of The High Council.”

“Oh yes, The Time War.”

“So that is what you saw.”

“Yes Theta.”

The others present dropped their guard seeing The Doctor’s faith in The Master’s benign intentions. He was, after all, usually correct when it came to his faith in The Master. And all present knew why.

The other guests began to arrive. Kate Stewart and her two sons Gordon and Alexander.

“Dad?” Kate had said when she saw The Brigadier.

“Hey Tiger.” He’d replied before getting an armful of his grown daughter.

Jo Jones and he grandson. Most of UNIT’s old guard. John’s sister, who seemed mildly surprised at her Daughters presence. Quite a number of ex-companions of The Doctor. Mike’s one nephew with whom they had any contact, Raymond and his partner Alexander Forsyth. The rest of the Little Hodcombe Archaeological team, Professor River Song and Doctor Bernice Summerfield.

The ceremony was perfect. There had been no trouble made by any of the guests, least of all The Master who seemed genuinely pleased for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Yes, I have used Delgado's Master.
> 
> Tomorrow, the wedding reception, wherein, well, you'll see.


	12. Silver Wedding Bells (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Benton and Yates have met Jack before I haven’t posted either of the stories yet but before Yates and Benton officially met (witch happened when Mike came to UNIT in Vengeance Of The Stones) They were all in a gay bar and Jack failed spectacularly at picking Mike up. They met a couple of times in their UNIT days, Never when The Doctor was around and usually when The Brig was away.

The wedding reception of John Benton and Mike Yates was a modest affair. Not so much modest perhaps as simple. They had rented out a function room quite near the church. Someone, and they had never found out who or how, had arranged quite a good deal.

It was rather an entertaining sight watching The Doctor juggle his three significant others. While both The Master and Jamie knew of both each other and River prior to their arrival River herself had a rude shock when she found out about the other two.

The Master had always known about Jamie. Just as Jamie had always known of The Master. River’s existence was only a relatively new development. Jamie and The Master had taken to each other, to everyone’s surprise, quite nicely. River warmed to Jamie eventually but she never quite did the same with The Master. Bernice, Jayne, Erin and Richard found this enormously entertaining and did little else but watch and give commentary in hushed tones. The Master kept glancing at them with an arched eyebrow.

When The Doctor had led River off to dance The Master and Jamie looked at each other in silence for a moment.

“It’s remarkably good to finally meet you Mr McCrimmon.”

“And you.”

“I had hoped he would find you again. It was unnecessarily cruel of our people to separate you like that.”

“Aye.”

“He loves you as much as he did me you know.”

“What makes you think he ever stopped loving you?”

“I stopped deserving it a long time ago.”

“That may be but that’s also not how it works.”

“You’re a lucky man.”

Jamie had to agree.

* * *

 

When Captain Jack Harkness rocked up mid-afternoon John pointed him out from where they were dancing.

“Mike, look.”

“Is that?”

“I’m fairly sure it’s that Jack Harkness bloke.”

“Bastard.”

“He hasn’t aged a day.”

He came over to congratulate them. The Doctor was now dancing with Jamie and Jack didn’t recognise either of them. He crossed instead to where The Brigadier, Sarah-Jane, Richard and The Master were sitting with Kate, Jayne, Erin and Bernice. Jack took the empty seat.

“Aren’t you dead?” Jack asked Sarah-Jane the two dead men at the table.

“Aren’t you?” Richard retorted, not unkindly.

“Immortality. For the record, worst superpower ever.

“No,” said The Master, “I suppose it’s not. How are you Captain?”

“Doctor?”

“I’m flattered but I am usually referred to as The Master.”

“You! How are you even still alive? I saw you die.”

“Perhaps, but that hasn’t happened yet, not for me.”

“He is behaving himself Jack.” Richard reassured him.

“Where’s The Doctor? He is here I assume.”

“Over there,” Jayne said, pointing him out.

“Who’s the kid?”

“His name’s Jamie, he’s an honest to god Jacobite. He travelled with The Doctor before his exile on earth.”

* * *

 

Richard took Jayne aside as the sun was setting.

“Jayne,” he said, bumping their shoulders.

“Yea.” She bumped his back.

“In case I don’t get the chance to tell you-“

“Pa.”

“No, listen. I know the doctor wouldn’t have come ten years back in time to bring me here if I could have just got on a plane to get here. I’m fairly sure I’m near the end of my life so in case I never get the chance I need you to know that I love you and I’m proud of you. You’ve become an extraordinary young woman and you’ll go far. Not just in time and space. There are wonders out there, just waiting for you Jayne. Take care of her and The TARDIS will always bring you home.”

“I will.”

“I like Erin.”

“She’s really something isn’t she.”

“She thinks the wrold of you.”

“I know I’m supposed to tell her this, and I have, but don’t hurt her.”

“Technically that’s Peter’s job.”

They both laughed at the image of Jayne’s weedy little brother, seven in both Richard’s time and Jayne’s mind, giving Erin, a full grown woman the shovel talk.

“So," Richard said, "you didn’t join the army obviously. What did you end up doing?”

“Well, after finished school I worked for Dad for a year, I joined the Army Reserve when I started my double degree in English and Archaeology. That took me a little while. That’s how Erin and I met, I was her student for about five years. Now, when I’m not travelling with The Doctor, and sometimes even when I am, I’m an actor.”

“Anything I’d have seen.”

“Remember when you came over here on a trip after you retired?”

“Yes.”

“Remember when you slept through The Mousetrap?”

“You weren’t in that?”

“I was. My name is even in your programme. Jayne McLoney. I used Mum’s maiden name. I usually don’t bother but I knew you would be coming to see that one.”

“I don’t know that we still have it.”

“No, you definitely do, I saw it three months ago in that writing desk that Garry’s claimed. The really nice one. It’s in a shoebox full of photos from the trip.”

“I can’t believe I fell asleep ten minutes into the only West End play I’ll ever see you in.”

“You did see me, you probably don’t remember it. I always knew you’d fall asleep ten minutes in so I went for a character in the opening scene.”

“I’m so sorry, I don’t remember a thing about it.”

“It’s alright, I’ve always known that.”

“Wat about screen work?”

“I stick to the stage in my past, except for the occasional pilot episode for a series that never gets made. Means there’s no chance of I or anyone I know will recognise me. I couldn’t resist auditioning for Farscape though. I got one episode in full prosthetics. I don’t think anyone recognised me, I certainly didn’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yes my grandparents did fall asleep ten minutes into The Mousetrap and didn’t wake up until the show had finished when they went to see it in London. They had just got off a plane from Australia and they were more jet-lagged than they thought.
> 
> Tomorrow we go to Christmas 1992 in Australia with the Eastick family. Where we play backyard Cricket, Turlough bitches about the heat, everyone makes fun of him and Tegan appreciates being back in Australia.


	13. An Eastick Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: Random Doctor (Five), Backyard Cricket.
> 
> The adventure immediately before this is my submition for next year's Big Finish Short Trip competition.

The TARDIS materialised in a backyard. It was rather nondescript. It was grassy and had a seldom used brickwork barbeque overgrown with a mulberry bush. There was sea in the air, in fact there was sea over the road. The day was sunny and the whole town, or a good portion of it, had been up since sunrise. The backyard belonged to an old friend of The Doctor. Long retired Sergeant Richard Eastick of The Australian Army and his wife Kate. It was Christmas day 1992. Tegan, Turlough and The Doctor didn't know that yet but they soon would.

 Richard Eastick had become a portly man in his old age. He was tall and decently muscled, kind and reliable. He had, upon hearing The TARDIS come out to greet them, leaving his somewhat confused wife in the house with the Christmas preparations. He was pleased to see them, He knew Tegan quite well, though Tegan had not yet met him. Turlough he had heard about from his countryman and The Doctor, well one got used to The Doctor and his changing faces but ever consistent dress sense, or lack thereof. He did not expect but was not surprised by the decorative vegetable.

 "Tegan! Doctor! And you must be Turlough." Richard said, then approached the TARDIS and laid a hand on her. "Hello old girl."

 "Sorry?" Tegan said, because that is the way one logically reacts when greeted as an old friend by a complete stranger. Admittedly not an uncommon occurrence for a time traveller.

 "Oh, right. We haven’t actually met yet, in your timeline. Richard, Richard Eastick. Formerly of UNIT."

 "Oh, You’re Jayne's grandfather. We met her recently. She's quite remarkable."

 "Isn't she just. Of course, she's three and a half weeks old at this point. They'll all be here soon, you’re welcome to join us For Christmas."

 "We'd be delighted," The Doctor answered for all of them.

 Turlough was mildly displeased, mostly stemming from the fact that it was hot. Well, hot for a pasty British schoolboy, nobody else present seemed to notice.

 "Why's it so hot? I thought you said it was Christmas." Turlough said.

 "It is, and this is the proper temperature for Christmas day, thank you very much." Tegan replied.

 "On what planet?" Turlough retorted.

 Tegan rolled her eyes. "Australia."

 "I thought it was a myth that Australia doesn't have a winter."

 The Doctor and Richard shared a look but said nothing.

 "Yes, we also ride Kangaroos to school and all of our flora and fauna will kill you instantly," Tegan said.

 "Really?"

 "No, you idiot, we’re in the southern hemisphere. Our winter is June to August. It's the middle of summer."

 "Oh..." Turlough felt a little stupid. Everyone else present tried, and failed, not to laugh.

 It wasn't long until the rest of the Eastick family arrived. Richard and Kate had four children. Ross, Roy, Leanne and Thomas. The eldest of his six grandchildren was Kaye who was nine. The youngest as Jayne who, as previously mentioned, was three and a half weeks old at the time. Between them were Garry, Leanne, Gabrielle and Harry. Both the boys were three years old, though there were several months between them, and the girls were seven and shared a similar age gap. Jayne was adorable, she had big, drk eyes and a mop of jet black hair atop her tiny head. It was surreal, Tegan thought, to hold a baby in your arms who had been a grown woman when they'd met not so long before.

 It wasn’t long, before the traditional Christmas cricket match was in full swing.

 “Cricket is not an Australian Sport. The British invented it, it is a British sport.” Turlough objected when Richard referred to the sport as a ‘traditional Australian pastime’.

 “Yes, but Australians can actually play it. Why do you care anyway? You hate this planet.” Tegan, quite rightly, retorted.

 “Yes, but I like cricket. It's civilised. It's the one thing about this planet that is.”

 “Shut up and join us then.” She said, tossing him the second bat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be much more involved but it got a bit long. We may revisit The Eastick family later on.
> 
> Tomorrow we join the Archaeologists in Little Hodcombe for Christmas dinner.


	14. Christmas At The Little Hodcombe Dig

It was Christmas in Little Hodcombe. The archaeological team excavating the sight where a church had stood had taken the day off. What was left of the team anyway? Most of them had taken the week off to visit their families. It wasn’t a big team. Bernice Summerfield, Erin Spencer, River Song and Jayne Eastick. The latter was very much amateur but nonetheless had a gift in the field. Then there were a handful of students, who had all gone home for a week or so, and a handful of UNIT soldiers, just in case. The UNIT troops were largely a precaution and after much negotiation with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart they had been allowed to go home over Christmas. And so the four of them were left alone at basecamp.

Dinnertime conversation was lively and somewhat argumentative.

“As much as I admire your work Erin. I have to disagree. King Arthur is a fine man, and a very good King. And as for Beowulf…” said Doctor River Song.

“Oh, I agree. Arthur is a great bloke but that doesn’t discredit Erin’s paper,” Jayne said.

“Oh, it doesn’t?” Benny said.

“”No, it doesn’t. The paper is about Arthur’s representation in the surviving texts. And in those he comes across as a bit of a weenie.”

“A weenie? Is that a proper academic term Jayne?” Benny said.

“Shut up. And your attack on my vernacular is further proof of the substance of my argument.”

“I told you she was good,” Erin said leaning into Jaynes more solid frame.

Jayne draped her arm unimposingly around Erin’s waist in response. They were between courses by now and Benny wordlessly cleared the table and put the pudding on. It was one Jayne’s grandmother, sister and cousin had made and sent over.

“Where is The Doctor?” River said, as if the thought were occurring to her for the first time.

“Too many Archaeologists for his liking,” was Jaynes reply.

River laughed.

“That’d be right,” Benny said taking her seat again.

Erin didn’t quite follow. Jayne explained.

“Though he adores us individually he is a bit… shall we say unappreciative of our field.”

“What’s that got to do with having Christmas dinner?”

“Darling, what have we been talking about all day?”

“Well, we had the Sutton Hoo debate. Then we discussed my new paper… Then River’s new paper… Then we talked about your recent Viking adventure and tried to work out exactly how we could publish about your little discovery and how and where we could find evidence to back it up… then we talked about Benny’s next paper… yes, I see your point.”

Then, as if to prove they could hold a discussion about something other than Archaeology River changed the subject.

“So, this new face of The Doctor’s. What do we all think?”

“I like it,” Benny said, “Taller than my usual one so eye contact is less of an issue. The accent’s nice.”

“Yea, the accent is nice, reminds me of my great granny. What are the other faces like?” Jayne said.

River, by way of answer handed over the photos she carried of each of The Doctor’s faces.

“Hang on,” Jayne said indicating the earth exile era Doctor, “I’ve met this one.”

“Let me guess, Seventies?” River said.

“Well, yea. I was in a play in London. The Doctor had left me there because he didn’t want to run into himself. So he came back at the end of the run to pick me up. The Brigadier and this Doctor came to see it.”

They discussed the Doctor and his various faces for a while until Benny went to bring out the pudding.

“Don’t swallow any of the thruppences. They’re a hassle to replace,” Jayne said when Benny set the pudding on the table and began serving it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we have the inaugural UNIT Games.


	15. The First Annual UNIT Games

It had been another of Richard’s brilliant ideas. The inaugural UNIT Games. One tiny flaw in said plan ninety nine point eight percent of the time it was bloody freezing at HQ. The natives didn’t seem to notice this statistic. For some ridiculous reason, somebody’s idea of a joke on the resident Australian no doubt, the games were to be held mid-December. Richard reflected that going on a tirade to Yates, Benton and The Brigadier about how the British had thoroughly forgotten how to play even the numerous sports they invented was perhaps a bad Idea. In his defence Benton had started the argument.

Much to the displeasure of everyone present but The Doctor, who had been highly amused, Richard and his small team of ANZACs had still won overall. Most of them had been Kiwi ring-ins from the UNIT base in Auckland. Genius really, The Brigadier, Benton and Yates hadn’t thought of that in their strategy discussions.

The first event had been the UNIT Pentathlon. Laying a line of claymore mines modified to disperse a coloured die was the first stage. The goal, to achieve an efficient and even spread when triggered. The ANZACs had won in a landslide, using an unorthodox but effective distribution pattern.

The simple fact that The Australian’s and Kiwis were nowhere near the well-oiled team that Benton, Yates and their team were had cost The ANZACs the second stage: Assembling and test firing a special UNIT issue heavy calibre rail gun from scratch.

Richard made the ground up with the single combat against Benton. Richard was a singularly gifted swordsman. And, after a very short time Benton was flat on his back, Richard’s blunted broadsword at his throat. The next moment Richard had helped Benton to his feet.

Then came the five adversary challenge, wherein five extra-terrestrial adversaries are put before each team I  sequence and, via a complex points system, each team is scored on their theoretical handling of the situation. The ANZACs had again come out on top through a mixture of original thinking and a major oversight on the part of their opponents.

The final stage in The UNIT Pentathlon was the construction of a rudimentary device under The Doctor’s instruction. This one had been a draw between Richard and Sergeant Osgood. The Doctor had eventually awarded victory to Richard who had not followed the specifications of the device, an electromagnetic pulse emitter, with quite the same dedication as Osgood but Richard’s had worked more efficiently thanks to a certain wiring technique he had learned from his favourite uncle.

The Pentathlon had used up almost all of the daylight on the first day and so, the program for the second day had been a little rushed.

The overall marksmanship title, which had last minute expanded to include archery, small scale explosives and the open category on top of the moving and stationary rifle and pistol categories, had been taken by the British team, even though the individual titles had gone mostly to Richard who had an unfortunate weakness in archery and had gone slightly wide with two of his three grenades.

There was to be a more extensive hand to hand tournament but it was turned into a single mixed discipline sudden death affair witch had come down to a final between Benton, with a modified style of Venusian Aikido he had been learning from The Doctor and one of the few Australian ring-ins using good old fashioned Judo. A corporal by the name of Jake Andrews who was usually based at Sydney’s UNIT HQ. He was a big lad, slightly bigger than Benton but Benton, with an ambiguously legal move, had come out the victor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow: The Brig is called urgently to Geneva.


	16. Kate's Weekend With The Boys

The Brigadier had been called to Geneva urgently with The Doctor. Anny other Thursday would have been fine. Any other Thursday wold not have been the first time he’d seen his daughter in months. Fiona, his now recently ex-wife, was going to a conference in Blackpool for the weekend and she had, albeit reluctantly, agreed that Kate could stay with him. Fiona had not been keen on the Idea. Mike, being well aware of this, had offered to go to Geneva in the Brigadier’s place. He and The Doctor were more than capable of handling anything Geneva could conceivably want. Geneva would have none of this though. They insisted on The Brigadier. Fiona was less than understanding about this.

Kate, at such late notice would have to go to either Blackpool with her mother, not ideal, or to Geneva with her father, even less so. Richard, who could always be trusted to come up with a brilliant plan, had postulated the third option. Richard had a wife and four children. A daughter about Kate’s age, an infant son and two older boys. Kate could stay with him. The plan evolved from there. She spent the nights with Richard’s daughter Leanne. The two of them, though not frequently acquainted with one another, liked each other very much (and, on a side note, retained sporadic contact well into adulthood). Kate had also taken quite a liking to Ross and Roy, Richard’s two teenage sons who were sixteen and thirteen respectively. Friday had been a school free day, some teacher’s conference, and so Benton had taken all the children on a day out while Richard and Mike ran things at UNIT. On Saturday Mike had taken Kate, Leanne and Roy, first to the pictures and then to the park. Sunday had been a quiet day and it had ended with Yates and Benton at the Eastick house for dinner. And that was the night Kate got the first inkling that her father didn’t have a mundane military job. The first time she had ever considered the stories she and her mother made up about their father’s wild adventures could be anywhere close to the truth.

Kate had said something to the two middle Eastick’s about the dull military jobs their fathers had when Roy, who was rather too clever for his own good replied, taking a bite of his apple:

“Why, you silly pom, would we have travelled halfway around the world for a mundane military job?”

Kate paused and thought. Yes, it was strange that Sergeant Eastick, Richard, he liked to be called Richard, had been sent all the way from Australia. Maybe there were wild adventures involved after all. Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates, she could understand. They hadn’t been sent far but Australia was a very long way away and by the way Richard and his family talked about it, they hadn’t particularly wanted to leave. For once, she thought perhaps her father did have vitally important work that kept him from her. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

“I suppose you’re right,” she said eventually.

“Personally, I think it’s something really big. Top secret, James Bond type stuff,” Roy said excitedly.

“You really think so?” Leanne said.

“Don’t be stupid,” Ross said from where he’d been briefly listening in the doorway. “Who ever heard of an Australian spy?”

“Nobody,” Roy replied. “That’s the point.”

“So, let me get this straight, you think our dad, out of the entire ADF, got transferred all the way over here to take part in some top secret program for spies? There are so many things wrong with that theory.”

“Like what?”

“Just to choose one of the dozen or so which present themselves, Dad is a Sergeant. Wouldn’t the Army chose at least a Lieutenant for your ridiculous program?”

“I don’t see how my theory is any less believable than yours,” Roy retorted.

“Ross thinks here are space aliens involved,” Leanne supplied.

“You read too many comic books.”

“I read the exact same comics you do. Mainly because they’re mine.”

“Not true, All the Phantom comics are Dads and the Commandos are all mine.”

“See, you read more than I do, I don’t read half your Commandos.”

“That’s true, you only like the futuristic ones.”

“Not true, the one about The Battle of Calloden is my favourite and I have a thing for the medieval battles.”

Kate stopped listening to the mounting argument at about that point.

 Kate would be tempted a number of times in her adulthood to contact Ross and tell him he was right. When she finally did she had mixed feelings about the fact that Benton had, having heard his theory and the ensuing argument, taken him aside and told him he was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Commando comics are war stories. They are predominantly set in WW2 but some are set in other time periods I've read one or two but personally I prefer The Phantom.
> 
> Tomorrow we hang out with Ten for a bit.


	17. Ten Leaping (Time) Lords

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Random Doctor (Ten)

The Doctor had not stopped receiving the twelve days of Christmas themed gifts with each regeneration. After the five biodampers. One of which he had now used on a loud mouthed redhead who reminded him vaguely of Tegan, Half a dozen perpetually broody geese had appeared. They had not been fond of his fashion choices during that regeneration. To be fair on the geese that particular phase of his fashion sense had been particularly garish. He blamed Perri, not because she had given any input towards the outfit but because exposure to Perri’s American garishness had obviously manifested itself in the fashion choices of that regeneration. It had been Ace who noticed the seven black swans in the swimming pool. In truth The Doctor had wondered exactly when they would appear. He assumed they had been in there quite a while. The Doctor was now also the proud owner of eight perpetually lactating dairy cows. Quite handy really. Upon his next regeneration he received a rather ornate music box. Nine women in festive garb turning to the music. The base was made of glass to display the intricate clockwork in the base.  It played the tune Auld Lang Sine. This regeneration he was due for ten leaping Lords. The mobile had been a surprise. The ten figures, each of whom was designed to resemble some Time Lord or other, didn’t exactly leap but as it rotated they bounced with jerky movements.

The Doctor was no closer to finding out exactly who was leaving the gifts, or, in fact how they were doing it. All the ideas he had once entertained were impossible now.

There was always The Master. His indomitable nature seemed, happily, to prevail. The Doctor hoped against all reason that somehow, his first and enduring love had survived.

The Doctor looked at the mobile thoughtfully. There was a two inch Romanna and More than one of The Doctor himself. The Second, Third and Fifth. The Rani was also there. The Doctor’s mother and father. And Susan. Then there were the two Masters. The one from their academy days and the one from The Doctor’s Earth Exile. And he wondered how whoever was leaving these gifts knew that, of the many faces of The Master, that was The Doctor’s favourite. He loved all of The Master’s faces of course but he had an inexplicable attachment to this one This was the first of his faces, after all, that he had spent any significant time with since… Well, since they had both become renigades.

He hadn’t noticed he note at first. There wasn’t always a note.

‘My dear Doctor,’ it read in circular Galefreyan. ‘I find it truly remarkable that with all your considerable intellect you haven’t worked out who this is yet. Do you give up?’

“Oh, I so hope it’s you Kosh,” The Doctor said to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we are back with our esteemed UNIT boys and with Mike and The Brigadier indisposed our two favorite Sergeants are running the show and, well you'll see. There is also another appearance from Richard's children. I wasn't going to bring them back properly again but I like writing them so...


	18. The Alien Virus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was more of this yesterday. My computer obviously decided the Yates/Benton domesticity I had at the end was unnecessary but we’ve had a bit of that already and are going to have a bit in the next week so I didn’t bother resurrecting it.
> 
> Apologies for the late update, I’ve been having internet issues today.
> 
> In other news: I can’t believe it’s only a week until Christmas

It was a rare occurrence indeed for Richard and Benton to be left in charge of UNIT for more than a day or so. It was almost a regular occurrence that Yates ad Benton were left in charge or even Yates and Richard but, although it was not unheard of, it was seldom for the two Sergeants to be left in command at all. The officers though, along with about half the men were all down with some alien virus. Handily about forty percent of humans were immune. Richard tried (and failed) not to mention that everyone who had been susceptible had been from the British contingent at HQ. He and his fellow foreigners had all been immune. They were still carriers of the virus, and thus couldn’t leave HQ until they had been cleared. Granted the foreign contingent made up only about ten percent of the men but the statistic was interesting. Especially considering The Auckland, Sydney and Adelaide UNIT bases had also been infected with the virus with an immunity rate of almost eighty percent. Richard had said something about this being further proof of Benton being an honorary ANZAC. Given the remarkably consistent and firmly founded reputation The British Brass had of using ANZACs as cannon fodder Benton was fairly sure he shouldn’t like this idea but he did a bit. Listening to Roy Eastick talk about The ANZAC Legend. The way he’d explained the nuance to Kate that night a few weeks prior.

Richard had promised his three eldest children a camping trip that weekend. He’d invited Benton along too, at the request of his sons. Even if they were, by some miracle, cleared of the virus by the weekend it was unlikely Yates and The Brigadier would be fit for duty by then. According to the Doctor, it would be at least a fortnight before any of the infected would be fit for duty. Camping would have to wait until everyone was back on their feet. Richard and Benton thanked their lucky stars that it had been a relatively quiet fortnight. Torchwood had asked to borrow some of the men as backup to deal with a minor invasion in Cardiff late in the second week but up until that point it had been the quietest fortnight in UNIT history and Benton, who had been with UNIT from the very beginning, could attest to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a scene at the end of this between a half asleep Yates and just off duty Benton and a simmilar one ten days later with a mostly recovered Yates. The only real disappointment is losing the reference to Captive Prince by CS Pacat which was lent to him by The Doctor but that will crop up sometime this week, I'm not sure where but I like the line so I'm bringing it back.
> 
> Tomorrow we have a UNIT training weekend.


	19. A UNIT Training Weekend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this got long.
> 
> Apologies for the late update yesterdays internet issues carried over to today.

Richard had still not managed the camping trip he had planned with his three eldest. The week after UNIT had been released from quarantine Roy and Leanne had been down with the flu. They were mostly back on their feet by Friday afternoon but, neither of them having been at school for a week, their mother had, and Richard agreed, refused to let them go on the camping trip. The following week Ross had been on a long arranged and paid for school trip to Stonehenge. The week after that Richard had been on duty with The Brigadier while Benton and Yates were on a long arranged three day pass looking after Erin, Benton’s infant niece, while Benton’s sister and her husband had taken their first weekend away since becoming parents a little over a year ago. The weekend after that there was a long standing and compulsory, baring alien invasion or serious illness, UNIT training weekend.

On Thursday morning the men had, with an efficiency born of long practice, loaded the gear into the vehicles. It was about a two hour drive to the training ground and everyone arrived in general high spirits. Except for Jo who didn’t particularly like the wet and cold forest and The Doctor who, for reasons unknown, was in a particularly testy mood. The Brigadier had eventually relented and sent them back to HQ in Bessie. It was, after all, a military training exercise. While the men set up basecamp, again with practiced efficiency, Mike and The Brigadier pretended to go over the plan for the weekend. In truth they had worked this out weeks ago with Richard and Benton. They were, in actual fact, continuing the debate they’d been having on the way up. Benton and Richard, who were helping with the setup, didn’t think the rest of the men noticed except for Sergeant Osgood who really couldn’t throw stones from where he was pretending to tinker with the generator.

The set up used up most of Thursday afternoon and part of the evening, but that was expected. The lottery style tent allocations for the men had happened when they stopped for half an hour mid-afternoon. Mike and The Brigadier always had tents to themselves and Benton and Richard always shared, on paper at least, in reality The Brigadier and Richard had tents to themselves and Benton and Yates usually shared but the army didn’t need to know that. In fact the Brigadier was fairly sure Benton and Yates (and probably him and Richard for enabling it) would probably be in hot water if the Army ever found out.

Friday was warm and sunny, ideal weather for what they’d had planned for the day. A sort of survival exercise meets scavenger hunt. Benton and Richard blindfolded and took three quarters of the men in the troop carriers to one of six starting points. There was a map at each starting point with checkpoints marked with six ribbons. The first team was to take the blue one. The second red, third yellow, fourth white, fifth green and last black. There were also extra points marked where various optional challenges awaited them. There was a complex system for deciding the winners of the day for which they had enlisted the help of Ross and Roy Eastick who were now on school holidays and had come along. The Army didn’t need to know about that either. As far as the army was concerned they were two special advisors. The scores incorporated a number of factors. The time each team took to complete the course. Their ranking in each of the challenges. The order they arrived at each checkpoint and their ability to avoid the obstacles put forth by the remainder of the men.

The other quarter of the men, who had been carefully pre-selected, were put on obstacle detail. Some were manning the challenge stations. Others were manning the food and water stations at each checkpoint. The rest were handed paintball guns and instructed to sabotage the others who were not told about this. Richard and Benton, and for a while The Brigadier and Mike, had joined in. One team had become so hopelessly lost when their map had been stolen they’d had to activate their emergency beacon and join on with the team who had eventually found them until their map had mysteriously reappeared at the next checkpoint. They had all arrived none the worse for wear, if covered in paint, half an hour before sunset. The winning team were announced at dinner a few hours later and were each given a two day pass, another ting the army didn’t need to know about.

By Saturday torrential rain had set in. The Brigadier had opted, mostly because he didn’t want to spend the day putting wet troops through drills, to cancel the planned drills. The day had been spent largely playing cards The Poker tent was the liveliest. They never gambled with money, not on base or UNIT business. The main currency was duty roster. There was a complex value system which was only loosely applied. Late night and pre daylight patrols were, along with ‘cleaning up the latest miscellaneous alien sludge, waste or goo’ (because at UNIT that was a regular duty), the highest valued. Next highest was guard or perimeter duty. The odd twenty four or forty eight hour pass was also highly valued if someone could get it. Richard regretted proving himself so proficient at organising post poker duty rosters because it had become one of his standing duties.

There was also a ‘Sevens’ tent, a ‘Bulldust’ tent, a ‘Spoons’ tent and a ‘Bridge’ tent. There were also isolated games of almost every conceivable card game running. Had The Doctor, his usual Bridge partner, been around The Brigadier would have been dominating the Bridge tent, and not just because he was CO. As it was he was in a tent with Yates, Benton and the three Easticks being beaten at spoons.

They had hoped the weather would clear by the afternoon but it hadn’t. The Brigadier’s tent had collapsed under the downpour and a falling tree branch quite late at night and he had, deciding to deal with it in the morning, traipsed back to Yates and Benton’s tent to use the second stretcher witch he knew full well was going un-slept in.

“Captain? Sergeant? I do hope you’re decent. I’m coming in.”

The Brigadier knew better than to walk in on any of his men unannounced late at night.

“What is it Brigadier?” Mike said in reply.

“Tent collapsed. I’ll deal with it tomorrow. Mind if I sleep here?”

“Go ahead.”

It occurred to The Brigadier that the only one to have answered him was Yates. “I didn’t wake you did I Mike?”

“No sir. John’s asleep but I’m not.”

“Blimey, it’s cold,” The Brigadier said half an hour later.

“I hadn’t noticed,” Mike said half awake, “Benton radiates heat, it’s like having an electric blanket.”

“So, that’s why you always share.”

“You could join us if you like.”

“Be careful or I might just take you up on it.”

* * *

 

The rain had cleared up in the early hours of the morning leaving them with quite a nice day. There was something so incredibly fun about doing drills in ankle deep mud. Even more so when you were the one giving the orders and not actually doing them. Ross and Roy were incredibly amused from where they watched. They whooped when their father had gone up to his incredibly clean, incredibly rested commanding officer and shoved him towards where Yates and the rest of the men were muddied and tired saying:

“Brigadier, I’m pretty sure the enemy don’t care that you’re the one in charge.”

Some of the newer troops weren’t quite sure what was going to happen. Had the Australian just said that? Privately they agreed, of course, but they doubted even Yates would get away with it, let alone their lowly ANZAC Sergeant. They were, to say the least surprised when The Brigadier, in his almost pristine fatigues handed his swagger stick to Richard.

“Right you are Sergeant.”

The Brigadier then moved to take his place in formation to Mike’s right after both Yates and Benton had moved one place to the left to fill Richard’s position. Richard then took over shouting the orders. A little while later, when there was another short break, The Brigadier turned to Yates next to him.

“Relieve the Sergeant will you Yates? He’s enjoying himself far too much.”

“Right sir,” said Yates breaking ranks and approaching Richard, holding out a hand for the swagger stick.

Richard handed it over and went to is position between Benton and Osgood, Benton having closed the gap Mike had left between himself and The Brigadier.

Eventually it was Benton’s turn to take over and he approached Mike and whispered something in his ear that the others couldn’t make out. Mike handed over the swagger stick and smirked like Benton had said something saucy, though it was really only Benton instructing him to do so. Richard and the boys, because they were their father’s sons, wolf whistled. When Mike made for the gap Benton had left behind Benton hit Mike’s rear firmly, but not hard, with the swagger stick.

This little show was put on for two reasons, first and foremost it amused them and second because the levity served to break up the monotony and maintain the morale of the troops.

At about lunchtime they decided to call it a day. They had planned another training exercise for the afternoon but everyone was covered in mud and it would likely take the entire afternoon to get everyone through the showers, especially if they all wanted hot water. They proceeded to shower and change in an orderly fashion. ‘An orderly fashion’ meant by Rank. First The Brigadier, then Yates. Benton, Richard, the rest of the sergeants. About halfway through The Corporals the hot water ran out and the line stopped for an hour while the hot water system caught up with them. Then the rest of the Corporals. Then the Lance Corporals. And finally The Privates. The Brigadier went to deal with his collapsed tent after his shower and was surprised to find it perfectly assembled.

“Who the blazes did that?” He wondered aloud.

“Benton and Richard,” Yates said simply appearing next to him.

“When did they do that?”

“Before they had their showers. They were in line behind the rest of the Sergeants when I came out.”

“They were quick.”

“Haven’t you ever watched them put up a tent together. It only takes them about five minutes. They’re weirdly in sync, like they can read each other’s minds.”

“Jealous Mike?” The Brigadier said with slightly laughing eyes.

“Never.”

“That’s a lie.”

“How do you figure?”

“Remember, that alien woman, turned out to be some intergalactic criminal?”

“Shillandra, no, Chillandra. Had us fetch and carry for her for hours, Only Jo, The Doctor and I seemed to notice something off.”

“Yes, pheromones The Doctor said, made the men libidinous and the women jealous.”

“Yes, you were all fawning over her.”

“You were not immune to that captain.”

“No sir, I wasn’t but unlike the rest of you my attentions were on Benton, not the alien criminal.”

Their conversation was cut short when Osgood found them.

“There you are sirs. Some of the chaps wanted to know if it would be alright to get the fire going a bit early today seeing as we didn’t have one last night.”

“Go ahead Sergeant,” The Brigadier said.

“I think I’ll join you Sergeant, if you’ll excuse me sir.”

“You’re excused Captain.”

* * *

 

Monday was mostly spent bugging out n thankfully quite nice weather. The Army really didn’t need to know they had done less than half what they had planned to. Half the purpose of the training weekends was supposed to be bonding anyway, and they’d definitely done that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we take a trip to the future (present) for Kate’s revival of The UNIT Games.


	20. The New UNIT Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not sure if I explained this but Jayne and Erin are from my submission for next years Big Finnish Short Trip competition in which they go on an adventure with Five and Tegan. Among other things in tat story Jayne, Erin, Five and Tegan go into a secret UNIT research facility underneath the Engineering building of Flinders University. Erin gets Jayne in as her research assistant. They probably wouldn’t have allowed it without the Eastick name drop. Jayne is quite heroic in that story.

 In one of the late nights Kate Lethbridge-Stewart spent reading her father’s reports she came upon a mention of the annual UNIT Games. She’d heard of them, of course, they had run annually up until the mid-nineties when, for reasons unknown, they just stopped. She well knew, as did everyone at UNIT, that the games had been a legendary Eastick Idea. The report she had come upon was her fathers account of those inaugural games. She had become quite used to reading the report he had wanted to write rather  than the one he actually had. For instance by: ‘Sergeant Eastick and his team of ANZACs  won the games overall in an impassive show of the teamwork, improvisation and resilience characteristic of their services and countrymen.’ He really meant: Richard and the ANZACs managed, despite the best efforts of  everyone else involved, to win the day. In our tactical planning meetings prior to the event Captain Yates, Sergeant Benton and myself, in what was a fatal tactical error, overlooked the Kiwis.’ 

Kate had decided sometime that night while reading the corresponding reports from Benton, Yates and Richard that it was high time the games were resurrected. 

It had been pure luck That Jayne Eastick had been with The Doctor  when he arrived to help with an unrelated incident a few days before the games were due to be held. When Kate had put the idea of staying for them to Jayne she jumped at the chance. Erin happened to be on her annual research trip and was quite by chance spending a week or so with John and Mike, who had also been invited. Jayne had accepted the offer of a UNIT VIP room while The Doctor had gone off in the TARDIS to bring in ‘a team’ whatever he had meant by that. 

The night before the games Jayne was in bed she wasn’t asleep, not really, she was dozing but it was still early. She was thinking of the first time she’d ever met Erin. It had been a characteristic nice day at the beginning of the second academic semester. Jayne hadn’t believed in love at first sight until that morning when Erin had walked into that first class with Lisa, her co convenor. Jayne had been struck immediately by Erin. Her energy her beauty. Then she had started talking animatedly with Lisa and Jayne was gone. They had struck a fast friendship soon after that and Jayne had found herself falling more and more for this woman every day. Jayne had resigned herself to the all too common fate of her kind, to be hopelessly in love with her best friend for the rest of her life.  

It had begun on one of their shared research trips to Belfast. Jayne was the only research assistant Erin had ever taken with her. The university hadn’t given her funding for one until after they’d met and when they had, Jayne had been her first choice. Erin liked Jayne, she honestly couldn’t think of anyone she would rather live out of an Irish hotel for eight weeks with. Jayne would be forever grateful for this. It was at the beginning of their third trip to Belfast. They’d left Australia earlier than usual that year to spend Christmas with John and Mike. Jayne and Erin had been sitting together in John and Mike's living room. 

“Thanks for inviting me, to Christmas I mean,” Jayne had said after a short silence, “I could have easily met you in Belfast.” 

“And let me fly all the way over here by myself? Don’t be silly I’m glad you could make it. I know your family weren’t too pleased when you told them you were coming over early.” 

“They weren’t but I made something up about the university wanting us both on the same flights, I made something up about invoices and they stopped listening.” 

“For the record, I spent a lot of time debating with myself weather to get you the present I got you or not. I hope you remember the conversation I’m throwing back to because if you don’t it’s kind of a crap gift.” 

“I remember every conversation we’ve ever had.” 

“Do you?” 

“Yes. Not every word of every conversation verbatim but all the finer details.” 

“I’m impressed.” 

“Good motivation.” 

“Oh?” 

“The best.” 

“You’re hopelessly in love with me aren’t you?” Erin said jokingly. 

“Well yes.” 

“What?” 

“I shouldn’t have said anything.” 

“You really are, aren’t you?” 

Jayne had sighed. “Truly, madly and deeply. I have been for some time now. Forget it, it’s fine.” 

“Oh, it’s much more than fine.” 

“Now you’ve lost me.” 

“It’s much more than fine because I’m in love with you too. I have been for some time now.” 

Jayne had leaned in and kissed Erin, because that seemed like the thing to do at that juncture. 

“Finally,” came John’s voice from the doorway when they broke apart. 

“How long?” 

“Have I been standing here? About a minute. Have I known you two were completely besotted with each other? Since about eight seconds into Jayne’s first visit. I do have some experience with the phenomenon.” 

Jayne was distracted from the memory when the bed dipped. She opened one eye to find Erin taking off her shoes. 

“Hey,” she said, leaning down to kiss her fiancée in greeting. 

“Hey yourself. I thought you weren’t coming up until tomorrow.” 

“We weren’t but Osgood wanted to go over something or other with the boys last minute.” 

“Young Osgood or Old Osgood?” 

“Old Osgood.” 

As it turned out Osgood had wanted to put a team of the UNIT old guard together to compete in the games. It had been his daughters idea. These games were to last a week. There were not significantly more events but there were quite a few more competitors. There was a team of old guard from every era of UNIT. In Mike, John, Osgood the elder and some of the other members of UNIT from the seventies they had the original Old Guard. Then Brigadier Winnifred Bambera, her trans dimensional husband, and some of her eighties contemporaries made up the less old guard. A team from the nineties, the slightly newer old guard. Another from the naughties, the new old guard. And, of course, several made up of current serving members of UNIT from around the world. Then there were the Doctor’s temporal ring ins. The Doctor, Missy (formerly known as The Master) as well as several of The Doctor’s former companions including a bemused Tegan, an excited Jamie, Captain Jack Harkness who still had not aged a day and Ace McShane. 

Jayne and Erin were spoiled for choice. Among the currently serving UNIT teams there was one for descendants of the old guard which consisted of Kate, Young Osgood, Jayne’s favourite uncle Tommy and an assortment of other family members of the old guard who had some affiliation with UNIT. It had been this one they had chosen. 

This would be a very bad week to invade the UK with several generations of UNIT’s finest assembled. 

The old guard had done remarkably well considering the youngest of them was over seventy, with the handicap factored in they had placed third. The ANZAC team had come in second and Kate’s conglomerate of descendants had come in first. Tommy, who was a fully-fledged Sergeant in The Australian Army, had not been pleased at having a lower marksmanship score than his niece, a mere Corporal in the Army Reserve. He nonetheless took the credit for training the champion marksman of the day. In actual fact it had been Richard who trained both of them. Jayne thought it best not to correct her uncle, especially when they were about to go head to head with blunted broadswords, Jayne had beaten him at that too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did intend to show more of the games in this chapter but I got a bit carried away with Jayne's flashback. I did get to the Games eventually.
> 
> Oh and Tommy is Richard's youngest. He is in The ADF and has had the odd UNIT Assignment but mostly he's in the Australian Army Band. Jayne is Roy's eldest. Ross was invited to take part in the games but couldn't make it.
> 
> Tomorrow we revisit Two and Jamie.


	21. The Wedding Of James Robert McCrimmon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short one today.

James Robert McCrimmon was looking pensive. 

“Penny for your thoughts Jamie?” The Doctor said tucking himself under his left arm. 

“What’s a penny?” 

The Doctor laughed affectionately. “It’s a rather inconsequential unit of currency Jamie.” 

“Oh.” The Jacobite looked confused. 

“The idiom ‘Penny for your thoughts’ is a way of asking someone what they’re thinking about.” 

“Oh, aye.” 

“So, Penny for your thoughts Jamie.” 

“It’s difficult.” 

“I’m very clever.” 

Jamie rolled his eyes at the little man nestled into his side. 

“Doctor, if I wanted to go somewhere, somewhere specific, could you take me there?” 

“Well Jamie. That depends on where and when it is. I’d certainly do my best. Where do you want to go?” 

“You told me the other day that one day people like, people like me, would be able to get married.” 

“And you want to go and see for yourself?” 

“Well yes.” 

“Let’s see, hm, which one would you like to go to. By the early twenty-first century there are rather a lot to chose from.” 

The Doctor pondered for a bit and then consulted the hatch, match and dispatch portion of the TARDIS data banks. 

“Ah, I have just the one. Your namesake, in fact. James Robert McCrimmon and Thomas Hamish McDougall, Christmas Eve, 2016.” 

Jamie found himself in the familiar Scottish Highlands. The church, which had been relatively new in his time, was old and appeared to have been painstakingly restored. It was a perfect winter’s day with a light snowfall. Jamie’s namesake didn’t only have a name in common with Jamie. He was perhaps a few years older than Jamie himself. While the physical resemblance wasn’t uncanny it was definitely there. His namesake was about his height but less weathered, which stood to reason as he hadn’t lived in Jamie’s, much harsher, time. His features too were more delicate and he wore his hair much longer than Jamie. Thomas was stockier and a little taller with sun worn skin. Jamie was taken aback by his Australian accent. The McDougall's had left Scotland, or some of them had, for South Australia shortly after it was settled The Doctor explained. Jamie’s namesake was also a piper, and a good one. Jamie was not sure if he approved of his song choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Jamie's namesake is playing is Waltzing Matilda. It sounds kind of odd on Bagpipes but I like it.
> 
> And yes people do play at their own weddings. My uncle (who Tommy and Richard Eastick are both based on) played at his own wedding, as did his wife. Coincidentally we are actually related to the McDougalls.
> 
> Tomorrow we go to a Carols event in Jayne's hometown. It was going to be a Five story but I had this idea at a carols by candlelight thing a couple of days ago.


	22. Carols By The Bay

It didn't quite feel like Christmas yet. It was though  it was a week from Christmas Eve and the little town of Tumby Bay, in an effort to generate Yultide spirit, was holding community carols. Jayne happened to be home. As did her uncle Tommy and his family. Jayne had also brought part of the cast of the show she had just finished workshopping. That was why she was in her home era (give or take a couple of years) she had auditioned for and then landed a part with The State Theatre Company of South Australia and so The Doctor was off consulting for UNIT for a while. Kate had mixed feelings about this. 

Another member of the cast had connections in Tumby Bay and the cast had collectively decided that a holiday was just the ticket in the gap between workshop and rehearsal. As a result there were rather a lot of professional performers in town. It had been Jayne's idea that they all crash the Carols. It had only been briefly discussed and only once rehearsed. They had come down the isles about halfway through the planed programming and they had almost doubled the length of the  evening. As the town lesbian Jayne felt it was her duty to sing a duet of Baby It's Cold Outside with Erin. It had turned out more scandalous than she had expected. The small but vocal bible bashing conglomerate had kicked up a fuss well into the new year about how they didn't want their children exposed to such things. They had very little trouble with the abstract and Jayne was one of the best loved members of the community, a post she had inherited from Richard.  She, Tommy and the other (semi) local girl did a beautifully harmonised rendition of I'll Be Home For Christmas. Tommy, Jayne and Tommy's wife had, in their first performance together, done a medley of Silent Night, Hark The Herald Angels Sing and Auld Lang Sine. The lot of them had also done Jingle Bell Rock and an assortment of other carols. Jayne had introduced everyone by turn omitting herself entirely. 

What was infuriating were the aforementioned conglomerate of bible bashers. All Jayne and Erin had done was sing. They had not kissed, they had not flirted, they had barely even touched except at three points in the choreography. In one instrumental Jayne had spun Erin. In another Erin had returned the favor and they had closed the song with Jayne sweeping Erin into a dip. Apart from that all they had done was sing to each other. Jayne, who had the lower range had taken the traditionally male part and Erin had taken the traditionally female part. That was nothing compared with the drummer and MC blatantly flirting with his wife all evening. When Jayne got home she vented at the wall about that and then Erin had started speaking to her in Latin and she forgot why she was angry. She just found the language so damned sexy, especially coming from Erin who was as comfortable in Latin as she was English.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow we stay in South Australia because John and Mike are coming to visit Erin (and Jayne) and they, unsurprisingly get drawn into UNIT stuff.


	23. John and Mike Take A Holiday (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to only be one part but it got... longer.

Adelaide was nice. Small, mild climate (by Australian standards anyway) and Erin was there. John and Mike had decided that a mid-year trip to visit Erin was in order. Jayne had obviously had the same idea because she was there in rehearsals for a play. The opening night of which John and Mike had managed to attend with Erin before leaving. A nice relaxing holiday seemed just the ticket. It would have worked out perfectly, and it did, save for the few days they'd been pulled back into UNIT business. It had started with an electromagnetic pulse. 

"Say what you like about old school tech," John had said when the entirety of Flinders University had ceased to function, "but at least it isn't so easily knocked out." 

As it turned out it wasn’t aliens. And that was a surprisingly rare statement when one was associated with UNIT. It had in fact been a careless student in the Engineering building who had neglected to close the door of the perfectly shielded room where he was testing his electromagnetic pulse emitter. It worked. Indeed, it worked well enough to fry the computer operated systems throughout the campus, which effectively shut down the campus for a week and a half. He'd been damn lucky the servers that ran critical systems at the attached medical centre and the ones that housed the academic records and system backups for the University were independently shielded. 

Once the students and most of the faculty had cleared the campus it was eerie, usually so full of activity everything was oddly still. Jayne, Erin, John and Mike were just about to leave when a thought occurred to Erin. 

"Crap," she said, "The UNIT guys." 

"What?" Mike replied. 

"There's a UNIT facility under the Engineering building," Jayne said. 

"Oh yea," said John remembering the resistance The Brigadier had expressed towards the idea at the time. "How do you know about that?" 

"We worked on a translation for UNIT a while ago, that's how I came to be involved with UNIT. Anyway, the entire facility is deep underground. If their computers are down they can't get out and they won't get any new air. It's a huge facility so they won't asphyxiate any time soon but we should probably go rescue them," Erin said. 

"How are we going to do that exactly? If the whole system's down..." Mike said. 

"The whole system isn't down. Only the computer controlled portions," Jayne corrected. 

"You just said that was the entire system." 

"No, I said it was effectively the whole system," Erin said. 

"The original systems are still in place they can't be initiated from within the facility, and even if they could I doubt anyone down there can operate them or even knows they still exist," Jayne said. 

"How do you know? I mean, no offence but you're not exactly a member of UNIT, let alone a high ranking one." 

"No, but I am an Eastick and I've done guard duty down there a couple of times since I got clearance for the translation. The CO thought I was a fairly useful person to know about it seeing as I'm on campus fairly often while not actually on duty." 

The four of them made their way up the hill to the engineering department. The building was deserted, having been the first cleared. Jayne used her UNIT master key to let them in, first to the building itself and then to the secure stairwell that lead to the control panel that would allow her to initiate the system to release the UNIT people trapped in the facility. 

It took Jayne about ten minutes to initiate the original security system. She’d been able to get into the control panel with her UNIT master key but, as an added security measure she had to wire everything manually. Finally, she pricked her finger and dripped a small sample of blood onto a slide. Mike and John looked confused. 

“There’s a chemical marker in my blood. The system can identify it. It’s a bit like a DNA scan but not as refined. If the system doesn’t get a sample with the marker  the whole thing locks itself down.” 

“Serum G38, The Doctor designed it. I didn’t know it was still in use.” 

“It isn’t, not really. Only for backups like this. They have only put about eight new people through the regime since UNIT started using DNA and retinal print scans.” 

When the system registered the serum in Jayne’s blood the panel lit up and released the door locks. 

“Now,” Jayne said securing the door and  leading them down the stairwell, “What we need to do is clear the facility. Before we do that all the projects need to be secured and everyone needs to be accounted for. Id be grateful if you boys would lend a hand.” 

“You've done this before,” Mike observed. 

“This isn’t even the first time this year we’ve had to do this. We had a state-wide blackout during a freak storm a month or so ago. Normally we’d have backup generator but the one at the medical centre failed and we had to divert the power from our generators to them. Because there was virtually no warning there was no time to secure all the projects before the system shut down I had to come and let everyone out. Like I said, the facility is huge, nobody is going to asphyxiate very quickly but there probably isn't enough food and water to last very long. Not to mention the lack of sleeping quarters. There are a couple of couches in the break rooms but that's about it.” 

“That was The Brig’s main objection to the proposal,” John recalled. 

They were met outside another door, that Jayne needed to open with a small blood sample, by an anxious looking commanding officer.  Captain Julian Meyrick, while a member of the Australian Army, spoke with a distinctly English accent. 

"Jayne," he said, "Vincent's been in an accident and Helen's in Ballarat can you handle things here?" 

Vincent was Julian's thirteen year old son who was very fond of Jayne and Erin. 

"Of course, go. We'll be fine. Give our best to Vincent." 

"Thanks, will do." 

Julian left with that and John reflected on how much the man reminded him of Mike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow: The exciting (ish) conclusion.
> 
> I will be posting Christmas Day.


	24. John And Mike Take A Holiday (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today is Benton's birthday I thought I should mention that. Happy birthday John.
> 
> This was going to be longer but the second half wasn’t working and I didn’t have the time to fix it because we had our traditional Christmas Eve late night trading last night so I was at work for virtually twelve hours yesterday and so this just sort of ends.

The most time consuming part of clearing the UNIT facility was tracking down academics who had yet to notice that there was anything aims. Jayne had always marvelled at the capacity for the academic mind (Erin's included) to become focused on the job at hand to the exclusion of all else. Jayne found it rather an endearing quality. It had taken no more than a few hours to clear the facility. As well as everyone being well practiced at the lockdown procedure about half of the projects were already secured due to engineering and bio-chem conferences being held in Brisbane and Sydney respectively.

After everyone had cleared the building came guard duty. There being no great rush to get the facility up and running again, it wasn't exactly a front line post, work on the system repairs wasn't going to begin until the following morning. Problem was, the facility couldn't be left unattended, especially without the regular security systems operational. The first on the duty roster in this instance were Jayne and Julian. It was odd for the CO to take guard duty but Julian refused to give his people duties he wasn't prepared to do himself and so, every so often he was on guard duty or other duties considered below his pay grade. This earned him a great deal of respect from his people, especially the non-military portion.

When Erin, John and Mike were about to leave Jayne to her solitary duty, Mike thought better of it.

“You go on ahead, I’ll keep Jayne company,” he said.

“You don't have to. I'll be fine on my own.”

“I know, I'd like to. Do you mind?”

“Of course not, I'd be glad for the company.”

Once John and Erin had left Jayne and Mike settled into a comfortable silence until, minutes later, Jayne's radio crackled to life.

“Greyhound to Trap two, do you read?

“Reading you Greyhound. How's The Robin fairing?”

The Robin was Vincent’s code name, he was an excellent gymnast.

“Robin is faring well. Broken leg and bump to the head, nothing serious. Do you want some company on guard duty? I can probably come back in.”

“Don't worry about it Greyhound, Captain Yates is keeping me company.”

“Understood Trap two. Out.”

“You remind me a lot of him you know, your grandfather, I mean,” Mike said after a moment.

“You  know, I never really get tired of hearing that. People say it all the time.”

“Quite right to. He was one of the greatest men I've ever known and I've known some pretty great ones.”

“Mike? _”_

“Yes.”

“What was it like being gay in the seventies? I know it’s kind of a personal question, don’t feel you have to tell me, I’ve just always been curious.”

“Honestly, a lot like it is now. Pre-Stonewall it could be pretty bad, I mean it was illegal. Between Stonewall in sixty-nine and the AIDS pandemic in the eighties it was pretty good. Exciting. There was momentum and change was happening finally. It really felt like you were part of something important. You  know I was at the first Pride march in London?”

“Really?”

“John was there too, of course we hadn't met at that point. I wasn't entirely convinced about the whole idea but I thought it was important to go.”

“I'd love to have been a part of the early first wave.”

“The eighties and early nineties were terrifying. Gay men were dying like flies. We weren't the only ones but it seemed like it at the time. The treatments were as bad as the disease or worse and nobody cared because it only seemed to be killing Gay men and IV drug users so nobody knew anything about it. It was frustrating.”

Mike, to keep himself from getting worked up, changed the subject and their conversation drifted until, an uneventful few hours later they were relieved by a pair of Sergeants. They arrived back at Erin’s house quite late in the evening. When they arrived Erin was marking assignments and John was quite happily reading an Icelandic Saga.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow The TARDIS throws a ball.


	25. The Yule Ball

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone, thanks for sticking with me.
> 
> I was going to go further into the actual ball but it wasn't working and yesterday was the last day I had internet on my laptop so I had the same problem I did with my twelve hour day on Friday.
> 
> And Yes, I did a thing.

The TARDIS fickle and unpredictable sentient machine that she is periodically holds a Yule Ball one cannot really judge exactly how often this happens. Once or twice a year or so when the Doctor is alone and perhaps once every year or two when he isn’t or whenever she felt the need for some Christmas cheer, usually when The Doctor was being a miserable old sod. It was always a smallish affair. Twelve, perhaps twenty people, all taken from a Christmas Eve during or after their association with The Doctor. She always put great effort into the guest lists.

On this particular occasion, while Jayne and Jamie were travelling with The Doctor, the first on her list was Doctor Erin Spencer. The TARDIS liked Erin, she was a bit like her uncle and always made Jayne happy.

Next on the list had been Benton and Yates. She had picked them up in the mid-seventies. It was bending the laws of time, having them and Erin approximately the same age, but laws of time were for non-transcendental beings like Time Lords and Humans.

Teasing The Doctor with archaeologists was always fun so he brought the rest of the current set, Doctors River Song and Bernice Summerfield.

She’d thought about Ace McShane and Sarah-Jane Smith but, for different reasons she’d put them on the top of the list for the next one.

Then Kate and her Osgood.

Tegan and Nyssa rounded off the group because privately Tegan was her favourite.

The TARDIS thought of leaving it at twelve but then she saw the abomination. Captain Jack Harkness. In truth, The TARDIS liked him. Being in his presence made her a little… queasy would be the human vernacular. Immortality did that to her. And Jack was sad so she could invite him to the party and feel queasy for a few hours and he’d cheer up. She supposed, even numbers and all she should include The Master. Yes, The Doctor’s favourite one, the one from his earth exile. Also, she assumed, having not been able to see it at Yates and Benton’s wedding, that watching The Doctor juggle his three spouses would be amusing. She gathered it had been.

The TARDIS waited until The Doctor and Jamie were… occupied before collecting the guests.

“What are you up to?” Jayne said aloud from the armchair in the library as she set her book down.

The holographic interface flickered to life, taking the form, as it always did when they were alone, of her grandfather.

“Throwing a ball. Would you like to help?”

“A ball?”

“A Yule Ball.”

“Is it Christmas?”

“I’m a time machine. It can be Christmas anytime I want. But yes, by your reckoning it should be about Christmas Eve.”

“Alright then, where are we?”

“Picking up our first guest. Go get her will you?”

When Jayne stepped out the doors to find Erin’s house she was thrilled. She let herself in.

“Do you want to come to a ball with me?” Jayne asked.

Erin, who had not noticed Jayne’s presence until she spoke, beamed and spun around from where she was on one knee looking at her bottom bookshelf for something to read for the evening.

“Hey you.”

“You miss me?” Jayne said kissing her in greeting.

* * *

 

In The TARDIS, by Jayne’s reckoning an hour or so later, everyone was assembled. They had all taken advantage of the seemingly inexhaustible TARDIS wardrobe. Erin, having had first choice had unintentionally chosen the dress almost everyone had intended to. It was a crimson silk number with a black and white marbled trim. It matched Jayne’s black tuxedo and red paisley waistcoat perfectly. It fit Erin almost as if it had been made for her. Jayne approved.

Jamie and The Doctor had only just emerged and were a little perplexed to find so many people. The Doctor quickly caught up and explained to Jamie.

The Master’s TARDIS had made its own way and everyone was mildly surprised when he appeared, along with the holographic interface of his TARDIS, taking the form of the earth-exile Doctor.

The ball was a resounding success. Jack had commandeered Jamie for the evening The Doctor, having been well occupied by his other two spouses, seemed not to mind. River and The Master still didn’t like each other.

When The TARDIS had stopped off to pick Nyssa up immediately after Tegan they had both almost cried with joy and Tegan almost bowled the small woman over in her haste to hug her. They didn’t leave each other’s side all night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might go a bit deeper into some of these down the track (famous last words).


End file.
